Meanwhile Miranda proposes marriage to Ferdinand! Prospero’s all “Aw, cute”. But not for long. It’s wizard revenge time! He lures Antonio and Alonso to a magical banquet and Ariel changes herself into a big nasty bird lady. a b Osborne, Laurie E. (1997). "Poetry in Motion: Animating Shakespeare". In Boose, Lynda E.; Burt, Richard (eds.). Shakespeare, The Movie: Popularizing the Plays on Film, TV and Video. London: Routledge. p. 107. ISBN 978-0415165853. A major part of the project was the educational aspect of the series, especially the notion of introducing children to Shakespeare for the first time. The series was made available to schools along with a printed copy of the script for each episode, complete with illustrations based on, but not verbatim copies of, the Russian animation. The printed scripts were slightly longer than Garfield's final filmed versions, but remained heavily truncated. [4] Each text also came with a study guide for teachers. [13] The Animated Tales have gone on to become "one of the most widely used didactic tools in British primary and secondary schools." [14]

The series was conceived in 1989 by Christopher Grace, head of animation at S4C. Grace had previously worked with Soyuzmultfilm on an animated version of the Welsh folktale cycle, the Mabinogion, and he turned to them again for the Shakespeare project, feeling "if we were going to animate Shakespeare in a thirty-minute format, then we had to go to a country that we knew creatively and artistically could actually deliver. And in my view, frankly, there was only one country that could do it in the style that we wanted, that came at it from a different angle, a country to whom Shakespeare is as important as it is to our own." [3] Grace was also very keen to avoid creating anything Disney-esque; "Disney has conditioned a mass audience to expect sentimentality; big, gooey-eyed creatures with long lashes, and winsome, simpering female characters. This style went with enormous flair and verve and comic panache; but a lot of it was kitsch." [4]Prospero and Miranda survived, landed on a remote island and have lived there alone ever since; apart from the spirit Ariel and the beast Caliban, who are Prospero’s servants.

Quoted in Osborne, Laurie E. (1997). "Poetry in Motion: Animating Shakespeare". In Boose, Lynda E.; Burt, Richard (eds.). Shakespeare, The Movie: Popularizing the Plays on Film, TV and Video. London: Routledge. p. 108. ISBN 978-0415165853. In the United States, the series aired on HBO and featured live-action introductions by Robin Williams. [2] Development [ edit ] Creation [ edit ] So, Ariel saved everybody. Including Ferdinand, Alonso’s son, who is lured towards Prospero and Miranda! The kids fall instantly in love! No they haven’t! Whattayaknow! It was a magical storm, raised by the wizard Prospero, who used to be the Duke of Milan, until his brother Antonio, helped by Alonso, exiled him. And here he is, with his daughter Miranda, his magical spirit Ariel, and his nasty slave Caliban, who used to live on this island alone – until Prospero was marooned here. They used to get along, but – yeeeaah –Osborne, Laurie E. (1997). "Poetry in Motion: Animating Shakespeare". In Boose, Lynda E.; Burt, Richard (eds.). Shakespeare, The Movie: Popularizing the Plays on Film, TV and Video. London: Routledge. p. 109. ISBN 978-0415165853. Holland, Peter (2007). "Shakespeare abbreviated". In Shaughnessy, Robert (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare and Popular Culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p.44. ISBN 978-0521605809. Pennacchia, Maddalena (2013). "Shakespeare for Beginners: The Animated Tales from Shakespeare and the Case Study of "Julius Caesar" ". In Müller, Anja (ed.). Adapting Canonical Texts in Children's Literature. London: Bloomsbury. pp.61–62. ISBN 978-1472578884. The series was commissioned by the Welsh language channel S4C. Production was co-ordinated by the Dave Edwards Studio in Cardiff, although the shows were animated in Moscow by Soyuzmultfilm, using a variety of animation techniques. The scripts for each episode were written by Leon Garfield, who produced heavily truncated versions of each play. The academic consultant for the series was Professor Stanley Wells. The dialogue was recorded at the facilities of BBC Wales in Cardiff. Meanwhile Caliban’s crazies are all off to kill Prospero, so Ariel distracts them with magical clothes and then chases them away with spirit dogs. And at last Prospero reveals himself and gives his bro Antonio and King Alonso a big telling off, then forgives them.